The disposal and disassembly of failed (dud) high explosive type mines presents a serious safety problem. Since there exist several different designs and configurations for the mines, a correspondingly different disassembly means must be used for the various mines. The applicants are aware of the following U.S. patents which have been directed to deactivating or disposal of munitions or explosive devices:
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Deck et al 1,958,420 Hopkins 2,404,441 Piggot et al 2,491,516 Plumley 3,109,369 Porter et al 3,117,518 Jones et al 3,229,561 Carr et al 4,621,562 Proctor et al 4,779,511. ______________________________________
None of these references have been specifically directed to the family of scatterable mines which have components which differ from the devices disclosed in the references.
The various types of scatterable mines are in the shape of a cylinder approximately five (5) inches in diameter and three (3) inches high. Of the two basic mine configurations, the first has a plastic aeroballistic housing surrounding the metal mine body circumference giving an overall box shape with approximate dimensions of five (5) by six (6) by three (3) inches. The second configuration has metal spring fingers which surround the circumference. Within the mine body there is a safe and arming device located near the center and a potted electronic assembly near the cylinder top. The safe and arming device and the electronics must be separated from the high explosive filler and other components of the mine for safe and complete failure analysis.